18 - Tom

An insistent knock at the door woke me a short time later. I try untangling myself without waking Eliza but don't succeed.

"Where you going?" She asks sleepily.

"There's someone at the door. Just stay here, I'll be right back."

She rolls over and I kiss her shoulders, getting a soft moan in return that almost makes me forget about the door.

Slipping my boxers back on I walk to the door and look out the peephole. Muttering some colorful words I pull it open to glare at Chris. He takes in my lack of cloths and waggles his eyebrows.

"Seems I caught you at a bad time brother."

"This had better be important."

He joking expression drops from his face as he hands me a tablet.

"Seriously? This couldn't have waited?"

He takes it back and swipes to a page then hands it back. I glance down and my heart stops.

"Now how did they get pictures of that?"

There were several pictures on both pages; pictures of Eliza and I on the left page and pictures of Zawe and I on the right. It wouldn't have been a big deal but the pictures with Zawe were of when she'd kissed him last night. It looked bad and glancing over the story that went with them it didn't sound good either.

"Explain!" Chris demands, pointing the picture of me and Zawe. "I thought you said nothing was going on with her. That definitely looks like something to me."

I hand the tablet back and run my fingers through my hair. There were never paparazzi that far into set, it made no sense how someone would've gotten pictures of it. Unless it'd been staged....

"She kissed me. I told her I wasn't interested in getting back together and she left." I mutter.

"That's not what it looks like."

"I know it's not what it looks like, but I swear that's what happened." I hiss.

"You need to tell her before she finds out from someone else, or sees it herself."

She'd understand, she knew they took things out of context all the time. She didn't even read the things herself.

"She doesn't read these."

"Doesn't matter. She needs to hear it from you."

"I'll handle it."

I close the door, leaving Chris glaring at me, and walk slowly back to the bedroom. I knew I had to tell her, it'd be better if it came from me, even if she knew the story wasn't true. But how was I going to explain why Zawe had been in my trailer to begin with?

"Who was it?" She asks, looking at me over her shoulder.

"Just Chris." I say sitting on the bed in front of her, brushing her hair out of her face.

"What'd he want?" Her smile falters as she looks at me, "What's wrong?"

She sits up and searches my face.

"Nothing's wrong darling. He just thought I should see something in one of the gossip magazines."

"Ugh." She groans, flopping back down on the bed, "Why do yall read those things? They're awful. Have the ever once gotten the story completely true?"

"No not really." I laugh, "You really don't know what it was?"

"Nope. Not in the slightest."

She looks at me with such trust it melts my heart. I know I probably should've told her anyway. True or not, Chris was right it would come better from me. It didn't make me look good, but she said she knew they lied more often than not.

"So what do you want to do?" She asks, sitting up and kissing my shoulder. "We've not had this much time to be together in one go."

I look at the clock, it was almost dinner time.

"Would you like to go out to dinner with me?"

"Like a real date?"

"Yes. If you want to. The first of many I hope."

The Odeon was probably one of my favorite places to eat here in New York City. It was casual and the staff was always friendly. I knew Eliza wasn't a fan of dressing up very often so it was a win win. To my surprise several of my cast mates had also decided to swing by for dinner.

"Hey Tom!" Elizabeth calls from her table, waving us over.

Like Chris, and most of the Avengers cast really, Elizabeth was a good friend. The press had tried to pair us up on numerous occasions but we'd never seen each other as anything other than friends. I lead Eliza over and lean down to kiss Elizabeth's cheek.

"Hi. What are you guys doing here?"

Elizabeth was sitting with her fiancé Robbie, the other Chris, Scarlet, Benedict and his wife Sophie. I turn to check on Eliza, figuring she'd be at least slightly star struck, but she's just smiling pleasantly looking at everyone.

"Just hanging out and getting some food. You two want to join us? We can make room. I'm Elizabeth by the way." She says looking past me to Eliza.

"Oh sorry. Guys this is Eliza."

I introduce each of them and look back at her. I had no idea if she'd want to sit with them or not. She smiles at me and shrugs, leaving it up to me.

"Sure. That'd be great."

A waiter brings two chairs over and everyone scoots around to make room. It wasn't cramped but it was definitely close. As everyone started talking again I could see she was more star struck than she wanted to let on to but she put on a good front; talking to everyone like they were just normal people like she had me. I squeeze her hand gently, smiling at her and she smiles back.

"So why was Zawe on set last night?" Scarlet asks me and I nearly choke on my drink. "You two seemed pretty cozy in the pictures."

"Scarlet!" Elizabeth hisses, shooting dagger at the other woman.

"What?" Scarlet asks innocently, "Just curious if Loki is starting to rub off on Tom."

Eliza looks at me with an eye brow raised. "Is that what you were going to tell me earlier? Zawe had come to see you?"

She didn't seem upset but with a good as she was getting at schooling her expressions I couldn't be completely sure. If I could've rung Scarlet's pretty little neck in that moment I would've.

"Yea." I admit sheepishly.

"Okay." She shrugs and looks across the table resuming her conversation with Sophie.

"Hang on." Scarlet says, "You don't care that your boyfriend was seen getting cozy with his ex?"

"I don't think starting drama here would be good for anyone." Eliza says, giving Scarlet a cool look, "But to answer your question, no I don't care. I trust Tom. If he wanted to get back with Zawe all he'd have to do is tell me, I don't own him."

"You should definitely keep this one." Chris says laughing in his seat on Eliza's other side, "I like her."

"I do too." Scarlet says, giving Eliza a nod of approval.

I bring her hand to my lips and kiss it softly. She looks at me and winks, leaning in to kiss me gently. I hadn't been sure what her reaction would've been to finding out about Zawe coming to see me but it definitely hadn't been that.

The rest of the evening went smoothly and by the time everyone said their goodnights Eliza was just one of the group. She handled meeting famous people better than most other famous people did; especially since I knew she was a Marvel fan herself.

She was well versed in the other's movies like she was my own too, and even made Chris embarrassed when she asked if he still wore a whipped cream bikini. It'd been a fun night and I hadn't had one of those in a while.

"Do you think went okay?" She asks nervously after we climb into the car.

"They loved you."

She was quiet for a minute and I knew she was thinking about what had happened with Zawe.

"I was going to tell you." I say looking at her.

"I know you were. Explains why Chris would come over to show you."

"You're really not upset? I swear she kissed me. I told her I wasn't interested anymore and she left."

She stiffens ever so slightly when I said she kissed me, Scarlet hadn't let that bit slip. She sighs and leans her head on my shoulder.

"I'm not going to say I'm not a tad jealous, you were ready to marry her less than a week ago."

"I swear..." I start but she turns and kisses me lightly.

"But," She continues pulling away, "I trust you. Like I said back there, I don't own you and I'd hope you'd be honest with me if you'd changed your mind."

I lean in and kiss her again then rest my forehead against hers.

"Of course."